Paladin-Mount Feats

Artoomis · 25th January 2002, 04:58 AM

In another thread in the Rules forum, I was looking for ways for my mount to better survive, and the idea of feats to improve the mount came up.

I really like the idea, so here's a start.

Share Divine Grace [Divine]

Prerequisite: Special Mount, Divine Grace

Benefit: In addition to getting the paladins's base saves if higher than his own, the mount shares the paladin's Divine Grace benefit of the paladin's charisma bonus to all saving throws, or the mounts charisma bonus, whichever is higher.

Normal: The mount gets his own base saving throws or the paladin's, whichever is higher.

Enlarge Mount.

Prerequisite: Share Divine Grace

Benefit: The mount gains two additional bonus hit dice - but the hit dice total may nopt exceed the paladin's level - 2

Normal - The mount gets bonus hit dice per the paldin's level and the mount improvement table.

Quicken Mount:

Prerequisite: Special Mount (as paladin)

Benefit: The mount gains +10 speed

A few other possibilities:

Empower Mount.
Silent Mount.
Heighten Mount.

You get the idea. Hiw about some refinement and ideas of your own?

Thanks.

Hypersmurf · 25th January 2002, 05:11 AM

Quote:

You get the idea. Hiw about some refinement and ideas of your own?

Twin Mount : two for the price of one!

Eschew Mount : to get the most out of that Spirited Charge feat in your dungeon crawls.

Reach Mount : polymorphs your horse into a giraffe.

Persistent Mount : polymorphs your horse into a Dire Energizer Bunny.

Maximize Mount : temporarily has maximum hit points per hit die.

Delay Mount : ... actually, that's a bit like Still Mount. Not one you'd really want to take.

-Hyp.

graydoom · 25th January 2002, 05:24 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Hypersmurf
Twin Mount : two for the price of one!

Eschew Mount : to get the most out of that Spirited Charge feat in your dungeon crawls.

Reach Mount : polymorphs your horse into a giraffe.

Persistent Mount : polymorphs your horse into a Dire Energizer Bunny.

Maximize Mount : temporarily has maximum hit points per hit die.

Delay Mount : ... actually, that's a bit like Still Mount. Not one you'd really want to take.

-Hyp.

LOL! Don't forget extend mount!

Cabral · 25th January 2002, 07:54 AM

I think extend mount belongs in the Guide to Unlawful Carnal Knowledge ...

More seriously, Check out a copy of Star Wars, and/or Dragonstar for their vehicle feats.

Jared A. Sorensen · 25th January 2002, 01:50 PM

Ooo! I just thought of a cool feat for Paladin mounts.

Not sure what to call it, but it's the ability for your mount to jump over and charge through burning stuff...you know, that scene in every adventure movie where the horse jumps over the flames?

Hmmm...ideas?

(maybe call it something like, Spurred Charge?

Wolf72 · 25th January 2002, 04:17 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by graydoom

LOL! Don't forget extend mount!

man asks for help and this is what he gets!

yeah, back to the tom-foolery (sp) ... doesn't a male mount get extend for free?

Artoomis · 25th January 2002, 04:28 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Jared A. Sorensen
Ooo! I just thought of a cool feat for Paladin mounts.

Not sure what to call it, but it's the ability for your mount to jump over and charge through burning stuff...you know, that scene in every adventure movie where the horse jumps over the flames?

Hmmm...ideas?

(maybe call it something like, Spurred Charge?

Sounds cool, but not needed as the paladin's mount is intelligent and will go through the fire if asked - and the control over the mount is unusual because of the mental link.

EDIT:Typo - sheesh.

whatisitgoodfor · 25th January 2002, 09:14 PM

Quote:

paladin's mound is intelligent

Would you people please get your minds out of the gutter? First extend mount and then this!

Artoomis · 25th January 2002, 10:18 PM

Okay, this has all been very fun, but I am actually looking for feat suggestions.

My focus is mount survival, and the main weakness is saving throws, adn anything that can help saving throws. Since the mount gains no feats, they should be feats that work on the paladin/mount connection.

Some possible effects:

Share Divine Grace

Mount gets better - get an extra hit die (or two) - more hit points, attack and save boinuses.

Gain ability for mount to have feats and/or skills as if it were a "standard" magical beast" (though, frankly, I think they should by the rules, by my DM and the Sage (so far) disagree, so there you have it).

Direct save bonuses - like Iron Will, etc.

Cabral · 25th January 2002, 10:51 PM

Actually, the best feat for improving a mount's survival is Mounted Combat: Ride Skill + 1d20 becomes your Mount's AC for one attack per round if it is higher than your mount's normal AC. Skill Focus (Ride) and Saddleback (Forgotten Realms) would then add to your mount's AC for that attack, as would a military saddle. House ruling the Share Spells special ability to allow the Paladin to share the effects of Divine feats and Lay on Hands (Paladin heals self for 20 hp and could opt to heal the mount for the same for no additional cost

) would also help.

For new feats, my suggestion is to build off Mounted Combat.
Mounted Combat Mastery [General]
Prerequisite: Ride Skill, Mounted Combat, Combat Reflexes
Benefit:When your mount is hit in combat, you may attempt to negate the hit as per Mounted Combat, but you may attempt to negate a number of hits per round equal to 1 plus your Dex bonus.
Normal:A character with the Mounted Combat Feat may only attempt to negate one attack per round.

Rally Mount [General]
Prerequisite: Ride Skill, Mounted Combat, Leadership
Benefit:When your mount is affected by a spell or effect with a noninstantaneous duration that requires a Will Save, you may use a standard action make a ride check modified by your Charisma, instead of Dexterity to attempt to dispell the effect. The DC for the Ride check is equal to the DC of the spell or effect plus the amount by which the mount failed its save by.

By the way, I House Rule that since Special Mounts and Familiars are magical beasts, their Base Attacks, Saves, and Hit Die are based of Magical Beasts, not animals.

Artoomis · 25th January 2002, 11:08 PM

Hmmm...

Feats that let me use Ride skill checks in the place of Saves for the mount. Now that's worth considering.

Not too much unlike Mounted Combat, really.

I'll have to think on this one, - I like that a lot.

Edit: BTW, the feats I have are: Mounted Combat, Ride-By Attack, Power Attack and Spirited Charge.

I think that Power Attack may have been a mistake, but I think I'm stuck with it now. In hindsight, I would have been better off making a new Mounted feat that helped in my mount's defense. Of course, at the time I had misread the paladin class and thought he was going to get the paladin's saves - whoops.

Hypersmurf · 25th January 2002, 11:27 PM

Quote:

Mount gets better - get an extra hit die (or two) - more hit points, attack and save boinuses.

That's Empower Mount

I already gave you that one.

Heighten Mount - For a number of hours equal to your Charisma bonus, the mount gains abilities as if you were a paladin of a higher level - say, a number of levels equal to your Charisma bonus. So a 7th level Paladin with an 18 charisma can, for four hours a day, convert his horse into the mount of an 11th level paladin - 4 extra hit dice, four points of AC, +2 Str, +2 Int, and gains the Command Horses ability.

Awaken Mount - like the druid spell Awaken, but affecting your magical beast instead of any animal. Mount gains speech, higher int, higher cha, and +2 HD... and can start gaining class levels. Give it a level in Paladin, and it can use it's ownDivine Grace. And Lay on Hooves if it gets hurt.
Suggestion - a Paladin's mount should probably have more than the 6 Cha of an ordinary warhorse.

This one also lets you do the skills and feats thing you were talking about, but there would have to be horrid prerequisites.

Raging Mount - don't make him angry. You wouldn't like him, when he's angry...

-Hyp.

Cabral · 25th January 2002, 11:45 PM

Actually, Awaken Mount gives me an idea ...

Invest Mount [Special]
Your Special Mount is invested with divine energy
Prerequisite: Special Mount Class ability, ability to cast 4th level divine spells, Leadership feat but no cohort
Benefit: The Special Mount is affected as per Awaken and gains the Celestial Template, but gains special abilities as the mount of a Paladin of one level lower. Current bonus hit dice are converted to class levels and the mount gains experience as a cohort instead of gaining further class bonus hit dice. The mount has the same alignment as the paladin's diety. The Special Mount is also the paladin's Cohort.

Artoomis · 26th January 2002, 12:39 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Cabral
Actually, Awaken Mount gives me an idea ...

Invest Mount [Special]
Your Special Mount is invested with divine energy
Prerequisite: Special Mount Class ability, ability to cast 4th level divine spells, Leadership feat but no cohort
Benefit: The Special Mount is affected as per Awaken and gains the Celestial Template, but gains special abilities as the mount of a Paladin of one level lower. Current bonus hit dice are converted to class levels and the mount gains experience as a cohort instead of gaining further class bonus hit dice. The mount has the same alignment as the paladin's diety. The Special Mount is also the paladin's Cohort.

Ohhhh - I like this one.

I'll have to get my DM to let me replace Power Attack with Leadership for this one to work - worth a shot, this is too cool not to at least try it.

Artoomis · 26th January 2002, 12:59 AM

Pretty cool - I played with this a bit, and came up with:

Invest Mount [Special]

Your Special Mount is invested with divine energy

Prerequisite: Special Mount Class ability, Mounted Combat, Leadership feat but no cohort

Benefit: The Special Mount is affected in a manner similar to the Awaken spell, but restricted to the benefits listed here, and gains the Celestial Template, but gains special abilities as the mount of a Paladin of one level lower (no bonus hit die or intelligence increases). Current bonus hit dice are converted to class levels and the mount gains experience as a cohort instead of gaining further class bonus hit dice. The mount has the same alignment as the paladin's diety (except it must be "Good"). The Special Mount is also the paladin's Cohort. The mount also gains the ability to speak one language (in addition to Celestial) that the paladin knows, an intelligence and charisma bonus of 2d6 (if using a point system, the intelligence and charisma gain 7 points).

But it still needs work, that's for sure.